A person must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to get anywhere.
Charles Kettering

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.
Charles Kettering

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.
Charles Kettering

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.
Charles Kettering

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.
Charles Kettering

Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.
Charles Kettering

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
Charles Kettering

I object to people running down the future. I am going to live all the rest of my life there.
Charles Kettering

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.
Charles Kettering

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.
Charles Kettering


In America we can say what we think, and even if we can't think, we can say it anyhow.
Charles Kettering

Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.
Charles Kettering

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
Charles Kettering

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.
Charles Kettering

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
Charles Kettering

Knowing is not understanding. There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.
Charles Kettering

My definition of an educated man is the fellow who knows the right thing to do at the time it has to be done. You can be sincere and still be stupid.
Charles Kettering

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
Charles Kettering

No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm.
Charles Kettering

One fails forward toward success.
Charles Kettering